My Auspicious End to August!! (Listen to me on the radio!!)

i’d known that the last 10 days or so of august could be auspicious for me, through astrology. of course i have that part in me that doesn’t want to hope for much for fear of disappointment. but i’ve learned better and better to just do things without being so tied to the result, to not have expectations. and it turned out to be quite wonderful, actually, i still glow inside when i think about it! of course it also makes me happy since it involved 2 things i love, music and writing.

ever since i finished my album, i knew i couldn’t just keep pumping new ones out using the same method, because financially it just didn’t make sense. so that had put a damper on my spirits ever since. joseph and i did buy ProTools a while back which is what the studios i recorded at used for my album, but it had been collecting dust in our living room. honestly, i was hesitant and scared to even try recording with it because the perfectionist in me was worried i’d be disappointed and frustrated by what we might produce from it as amateur users, so i never even started. but when i heard that Women of Substance Radio was looking for covers to play on their station, i thought, why not? i’ll just give it a try, and if it doesn’t work out, oh well.

i chose to do “Fields of Gold”, because i had the Eva Cassidy version of it perfected and had written in harmonies for the choral group i teach and performed it already. so i literally only had to worry about recording it! joseph and i literally used every spare moment we had for about 3 days, recording. i practiced and warmed up while he used his techie smarts to figure out how to lay it all down. and it turned out better than i thought it would! even though we don’t have a top notch mic or keyboard (or anything, for that matter!), and joseph was literally just figuring how to work it all then and there, and we don’t have fancy plug-ins like auto-tune and special sound effects, it turned out wonderful. but i guess in general i like to record as organic as possible, anyway!

we finished it just in time for the submission deadline, but i was happy whether it got chosen or not. just creating made me feel so much fulfillment and bursting happiness. and a week or so later, i got confirmation that it was selected to air, with an email from Bree Noble who runs the station, saying i did a great job considering i’d done it at home!

so if you want to hear it, the show will air EVERY DAY at 8 PM ET (5 PM PT) for two weeks, September 15-28, (click banner below), and either request my song by clicking the song request button on top, or wait for it to come on and give me a thumbs up, if you like it! 😉

of course my writing (and reading!) cravings were filled too, when i was able to read an advance copy of Francesca Lia Block’s new book “Beyond the Pale Motel”. not only was i able to enjoy reading one of my favorite writer’s new books, i was ecstatic to be given the copy so i could write about it too! it was a dream come true!

of course when i sat to write about it, i started getting my perfectionism fears again, it was almost excruciating! my mind blanked and i felt pressure because i so wanted to convey the book in a way that it deserved! i also wanted to make sure i was helping out Francesca in the best way i could. but i pushed all my junk aside, (let some of it out in my journal) and i treated it just as i would any other blog i was about to write. i tucked into my heart and just wrote out whatever was there.

and what do i mean by “i did something i was supposed to do”? well, i think all of our hearts are pulled in certain directions for a reason. i love singing, reading, and journaling so much because it helps me become a better recording artist, performer, songwriter, blogger, and some day an author. and i need to do what i’m supposed to do in order to feel fulfilled, and very important to me, to feel FREE. so it’s important to pay attention to where your heart is being pulled.

joseph told me the other day that he’d read somewhere that if you don’t use your creative energy creating, then it turns into negative energy. ouch! scary! yet i really couldn’t agree more. i’ve witnessed this in effect, in my life. which is why i’m making a special effort to create everyday right now.

so, i can humbly say that my first home recording was a success, and my first book review blog was a success too! and i’m sooo happily grateful for this! and i think i’d say this was all an auspicious end of august as astrology said it would be, wouldn’t you? 😉